I deserve respect, Bev

Pole dancer, Beverly Sibanda

BY GRACE CHIRUMANZU

“Do not try this at home” should be a sign bar managers stick around when she takes to the stage.

It is certainly something not just any flexible woman can do, an act that can cause severe damage to the spinal code if one attempts to emulate without the inborn talent. The way popular dancer Beverly Sibanda wiggles her body to rhumba music, pole dances and moves to sungura music has left Harare talking.

“People love what I do; I have had so many girls asking me to teach them to dance.”

Sibanda who lives with her sister in Borrowdale continued, “My sisters know the kind of person I was from school as someone who is so free-spirited and they have accepted what I want to do and supported me. My boyfriend understands me and respects what I do, he knows it is just a job and he likes it. He is always giving me advice and our relationship is good.”

The 21-year-old dancer who is popularly known as Bev started dancing at school as a cheerleader but realised she wanted to venture into the entertainment industry as a dancer in 2008.

Besides being young and beautiful, her flexibility and sexy moves on the stage has left tongues wagging. It has often sent the wrong messages to men and women who have watched her dance and those who have heard of her.

Some men take her for a sex worker, while other women believe she is out there to snatch their husbands. But Bev demands respect.

“When I am on stage some people tend to touch me or grab my breast, which I hate. I don’t like being disturbed. People need to understand that this is just a job, I do what I do to entertain and not seduce men; I don’t want their men. So, they need not think that I am looking for sex,” she said.

“I don’t drink alcohol and I am not a sex worker. I hate being touched when I am dancing. It just shows how men disrespect me because I am a woman; they know I cannot fight them. If it is a man doing what I do they will have respect for them because they know they will spark a fight. So, people should know their boundaries when they have been moved by my dances.”